JW: I wanted to work on more mid-century modern things like Noel and Herman Miller furniture when I first started apprenticing, but it's the most difficult upholstery you can do - I wasn't experienced enough to get into that yet. Also, the person I apprenticed for in Detroit had the market locked down and I didn't want to compete with him, so I was mostly doing antique furniture, you know, people's settees and chaise lounges and stuff like that. The clientele is mostly older people who could actually afford it, because it's pretty expensive.

BLVR: It's incredibly expensive, isn't it?

JW: Yeah. I initially thought I could hook up my friends with cool furniture, stuff they got at Salvation Army, but I couldn't afford it.

BLVR: Why is it so expensive?

JW: Say you want to re-upholster a couch. The couch is like twelve yards of fabric, and if you've got cheap fabric for $10 a yard (which would be really cheap), that's $120 already. Then it takes 35-40 hours of work to upholster a couch, so even if you work for $10 an hour, it would end up being like $560 to do a couch, not counting the padding, the cushion, all that stuff. So you couldn't just cut a deal; you can't upholster someone's couch for less than $1,000.